Robotic systems are often used in applications that require a high degree of accuracy and/or precision, such as surgical procedures. Robotic systems may include various types of robots, such as autonomous, tele-operated, and interactive. Interactive robotic systems are preferred for some types of surgery, such as joint replacement surgery, because they enable a surgeon to maintain direct, hands-on control of the surgical procedure while still achieving a high degree of accuracy and/or precision.
For example, in joint replacement surgery, a surgeon may use an interactive, haptically guided robotic arm in a passive manner to sculpt or cut bone to receive a joint implant. To cut bone, the surgeon manually grasps and manipulates the robotic arm to move a surgical tool that includes a cutting implement (e.g., surgical saw, burr, reamer etc.) that is coupled to the end of the robotic arm to cut the bone. As long as the surgeon maintains a cutting implement within a predefined virtual cutting boundary, the robotic arm moves freely with low friction and low inertia such that the surgeon perceives the robotic arm as essentially weightless and can move the robotic arm as desired. If the surgeon attempts to move the cutting implement outside the virtual cutting boundary, however, the robotic arm provides haptic (or force) feedback that prevents or inhibits the surgeon from moving the cutting implement beyond the virtual cutting boundary. In this manner, use of a robotic arm provides highly accurate, repeatable bone cuts. When the surgeon manually installs the implant on a corresponding bone cut, the implant will generally be accurately aligned due to the configuration of and interface between the cut bone and the implant.
For ergonomic reasons, a surgical tool mounted on an end of a robotic arm will typically include a handle or a grip in addition to a surgical implement such as a saw, reamer or burr. Some surgical procedures require maintaining an appropriate cutting boundary in addition an accurate angular orientation or pose of surgical implement. However, positioning the surgical implement within the correct cutting boundary and at the correct angular orientation often causes the grip, which is fixed with respect to the surgical implement, to assume an ergonomically uncomfortable position for the surgeon.
Therefore, there is a need for improved surgical tools that can be mounted on interactive robotic arms that include grips that can be adjusted positionally without affecting the position and accurate location of the surgical cutting implement (e.g., surgical saw, burr, reamer etc.) that has been placed within the correct cutting boundary and at the correct angular orientation or pose.